Don't worry - all those ugly arrows and white text were put there by me, not Extended UI.

Extended UI (ExUI for short) is an interface-enhancing mod by Mrpwn (MrJack on the Bethesda Forums). Currently, it overhauls the skill menu, as well as adding optional (through an MCM) support for the wait and sleep menus, allowing you to change the maximum wait time. It also adds some useful debugging features for modders in the console, though you don't have to use them if you don't want to.

The current version is 1.0.2a. It requires version 1.7.1+ of SKSE and Skyrim 1.9.32.0.8+. If you want to be able to modify the sleep and wait menu's maximum wait time, you'll also need to have version 4.1+ of SkyUI.

It is incompatible with any mods that edit statsmenu.swf, sleepwaitmenu.swf, or console.swf. If you have any issues or wonder about incompatibilities with the mod, either submit a detailed bug report in the comments or ask about the incompatibility.

Before we begin, here's a reference picture of the vanilla skill menu, for those of you who can't remember it. This is also fairly long, since it's got a lot of improvements over the vanilla skill menu to cover, as well as a few others.

ExUI is a mod that will completely change your skill menu, give you the option to change your maximum sleep and wait time, and add multiple console commands for easier testing. The largest part of the mod, currently, is the skill menu overhaul. As seen in the above screenshot, it sandwiches the skill tree viewing area between two dark bars. The top holds all the usual information that can be seen in the vanilla skill menu, while the bottom has an entirely new set of information. It shows all of the skill trees, in order, and highlights the skill tree currently selected. It also shows your current level in all the skills, and your progress towards the next level of that skill.

Pros

The main feature of ExUI is the skill menu, as I mentioned before, so let's start with that. I personally like it far more than the old vanilla menu, for many reasons. Chief among them is the incredibly convenient lower bar. A large issue I had in the vanilla menu was that I would be looking for a single skill tree - say Lockpicking -, and I would start be at Alchemy. I had no idea how many skill trees away Lockpicking was, and there was no way to tell, other than memorizing the order. Sometimes, I didn't even know which skill tree I was looking at until I zoomed in. Yes, most of the symbols made sense, but some, especially the magic trees, were confusing and I didn't know if I was on Illusion or Alteration. ExUI makes all of that information accessible at a glance. No more scrolling (or endless clicking through trees) to find the one I'm looking for.

Another part of the skill menu that might not be quite as striking to some, but which I enjoyed greatly, was how all the information about your character was condensed into one place. The default skill menu has your current health, magicka, and stamina at the bottom of the interface, while the name, race, and level (as well as level progress) was displayed at the top of the menu. ExUI moves this all to the top. While it might just be a side effect of the extra part of the menu, I did like it quite a lot.

Lastly, the skill menu looks very nice. It makes you focus on the skill trees themself by framing the skill tree view nicely, while still keeping the very streamlined look Skyrim has. As of 1.0.2, all the fonts match properly so while looking different (and better), it remains consistent with the "look" of the other menus. Still, the information is very easy to see, while remaining unobtrusive.

There's also an option in the MCM (only available if you use SkyUI as well) to toggle on and off the ability to change the sleep/wait menu length. If enabled, you can change the amount of time you can wait/sleep. The range is 2 hours to 720, so you're given a pretty free rein. I liked this a lot, since I often had to wait 24 hours 4 times for testing purposes. Which ExUI, I can wait one time for 96 hours. Of course, this isn't just a feature for testing, but playing as well.

Lastly, there are 5 new console commands added by ExUI, mostly for testing purposes. You can find a list of their actual syntax on the mod page, but their features are this: Make the console take up the whole screen, print a message to your Papyrus Log, send a mod event, get current crosshair reference, and open or close a certain menu in the interface folder. In 1.0.2, a feature was added which allows you to toggle on and off the fullscreen console in the MCM. So if you always want to have the fullscreen console, that can be done.

Cons

I'm going to just mention a few features I'd love to see. I think it would be great if you were able to click one of the skills in the bottom part of the skill menu and automatically scroll to that skill. Even if possible, it would likely be a feature that would be added far into the future since MrJack has said it's more of a hardcoded feature, and thus harder (or impossible) to add. I also noticed that pressing the bottom menu in the skill menu will close the skill menu. I'm not sure if this is intended, but I accidentally closed the menu once or twice. Once I'd figured it out though, it was somewhat useful as a very quick way to exit the menu.

Of course, I'd also like to see ExUI expanded to some of the other menus like the crafting menu. MrJack has expressed in interest in hearing other's opinions about what ExUI should "fix" next, so if you've got an idea feel free to head over to the comments and post it.

Conclusion

I'll try to finish that long-winded review in a somewhat shorter manner now... Extended UI is a great mod with lots of potential. I definitely think it could be expanded upon even more, but what it has so far is pretty great already. I'm looking forward to more updates, and I definitely think you should try it out, particularly those of you who were irked by the unintuitive skill menu and short wait times.

Just wanted to say love your reviews and love the website. I spend more time modding the game and watching vids about it than I do playing it and your not helping. So I just wanted to say thanks and keep it up.